260 
Psyche 
[December 
undoubtedly include all species described subsequently to T. 
circumvallata. 
None of the previous workers on these insects has made any 
suggestion as to the position of the family in the Heteroptera. 
Nor have the heteropterists themselves given the matter any 
attention although the very detailed and entirely adequate des- 
criptions and figures of Silvestri and of Morrison were all that 
could be desired in the absence of actual specimens. 
Silvestri’s family name must be changed in accordance 
with the International Rules, which state that the family name 
must be derived from that of the type-genus. Termitaphis 
Wasm. was the original genus, and was used by Silvestri as 
the type-genus. The genus, TermitocGris apparently does not 
exist. The family name must therefore be Termitaphididse. 
Dr. Wheeler drew my attention to this point. 
Superficially the insects of this family are remarkably dis- 
tinct from all other Heteroptera. This unique appearance is in 
keeping with a habitat shared, so far as known, by no other 
members of the sub-order. All the species collected have been 
found in the nests of termites, and such characters as are entirely 
peculiar to the family may be tentatively explained as results 
of adaptation to the termitophilous habit. 
Reuter’s (1912) Berner kungen fiber mein neues Heterop- 
terensystem was taken as the latest authoritative and compre- 
hensive review of heteropterous taxonomy. 
In following the key to families and also in comparing the 
separate diagnoses of Reuter’s series and superfamilies, it was 
found that the Termitaphididce were best placed in or near the 
series Phloeohiotica, a group established to contain the two 
families of bark-bugs, the Aradidse and the Dysodiidse, of which 
the latter is now by most authorities, e. g. Parshley, 1921, con- 
sidered a sub-family of the former. 
Reuter’s diagnosis of this series is as follows (1912, p. 32). — 
Unguiculi semper aroliis destituti. Caput horizontale, inter 
antennas longe prolongatum, utrinque tuberculo antennifero 
plerumque acuto instructum, bucculis sulcum rostralem for- 
mantibus. Ocelli desunt. Rostrum quadri-articulatum, sed ar- 
ticulo primo minutissimo, aegre distinguendo. Antennce capite 
